3 Held In Informant`s Death

February 21, 1986|United Press International

BATON ROUGE, LA. — Three illegal aliens were arrested Thursday by the FBI in the machine-gun killing of a cocaine smuggler-turned-informant who was described as the ``single most important witness in the United States`` for international narcotics traffic.

Baton Rouge U.S. Attorney Stan Bardwell said the suspects in the death of Adler ``Barry`` Seal were arrested in New Orleans, Miami and Meridian, Miss. One of the three, Miguel Velez, was charged by Mississippi authorities with conspiracy and harming a federal witness, Bardwell said.

No charges were immediately filed against the other two suspects, whom Bardwell declined to identify. He also would not say where the men came from or whether they were connected to any of the defendants implicated by Seal.

Seal, 45, was riddled with bullets Wednesday night as he sat in his Cadillac outside the Salvation Army Community Treatment Center. He was confined to the center on week nights while serving a six-month sentence on narcotics and bank fraud charges.

A former prosecutor criticized officials Thursday, saying Seal should have been better protected.

``It didn`t have to happen,`` said Don Campbell, a former U.S. attorney in Las Vegas who prosecuted 12 people fingered by Seal. ``There were measures that could have been taken to secure his physical well-being.``

Campbell, who left the U.S. attorney`s office in November to enter private practice, said Seal had implicated some of the world`s biggest cocaine traffickers and had told prosecutors he was afraid of being killed.

But Bardwell said that Seal had repeatedly refused to take part in the witness protection program, which prosecutors had recommended.